English Dub Review: Bleach Episode 362

Oh, look! Ichigo isn’t a sniveling little fuck this week!

Spoilers Below

Bleach this week was nothing more than a lesson in how to talk, and not be a sniveling little shit. This is probably the first time where I felt like Ichigo was actually a badass, because he takes Kugo, and smacks him around like a bitch. There was no whining, and none of your normal Ichigo garbage. He got his powers, and used them to the best of his abilities.

Of course, the one thing to take away from this episode, is how seemingly more powerful the members of Xcution got, and how easy Kenpachi sliced through Giriko and his more powerful Time Tells No Lies. I guess the 13 Court Squad members weren’t just sitting around. The only member of Xcution that seems to be able to do anything is Yukio, who has a new Fullbring, Digital Radical Invaders. He is able to control real life with his Fullbring now, by making clones and attacking with digital sprites.

This was rather surprising, because I thought Yukio was the most useless member of Xcution. Yikio manages to pair off the Guard Squad with a member of Xcution: Ichigo against Kūgo; Byakuya against Tsukishima, Riruka against Rukia, Ikkaku against Moe, Renji against Jackie Tristan, Hitsugaya against Yukio, and Kenpachi Zaraki against Giriko. The most surprising, though, is Riruka’s stance on getting Ichigo’s Fullbring powers. She was deadset on not getting it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her turn on Xcution in the next episode or two.

I am glad to see that we finally got a bit of background on Kugo, after twenty or so episodes. Kugo used to be a substitute Soul Reaper, and that explains how he knows about the Soul Reaper powers. Granted, his knowledge is pretty limited, because he should have known that Ichigo’s powers are not taken away that easily. I have to say, though, when Kugo unleashes Ichigo’s Fullbring, he looks very badass. Unfortunately, It looks like Ichigo outclasses him at every step now, so looks really aren’t much of anything.

With Rukia and company being gone for most of this arc, I can only hope that the wait we had to deal with was worth it, because for them to only be in the last 6 episode is somewhat of a crime. These are supposed to be Ichigo’s friends and brothers in arms, yet Ichigo almost lost everything because The Soul Society took too long to act. If Kenpachi slicing through Giriko is any indication, it will be, and Xcution is in a lot of trouble.

To summarize, this episode of Bleach was great. Unfortunately, I feel what I’ve been known to call the “Bleach Dread.” The “Bleach Dread” is that feeling of impending doom when something goes really great, because you know that something is going to go really wrong.